


In her way

by RoTheWriter



Category: The 100 (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 09:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19809181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoTheWriter/pseuds/RoTheWriter
Summary: Murphy's perspective of Josephine.And how I think Clarke will act when she hopefully (inevitably) survives.





	In her way

**Author's Note:**

> A mixture of actual script and my own dialogue to fit the narrative. 
> 
> Title from Murphy's quote 'Unless you got in her way'. 
> 
> Hope you don't hate it x

Murphy can't find the right words to warn Josephine.  
He's seen what losing Clarke does to people. But he's also seen all of the loss that Clarke has caused over the years – when she's in charge people die, Bellamy said it best. So Murphy vows to find the right words, happy to be the cockroach once again.  
Clarke is dead, and he is going to live. 

Josephine tells him to wake up and tell her how to be Clarke enough to fool Abby.  
Murphy knows that it's not Abby she needs to fool. She won't notice at all. It's Madi and Bellamy who'll notice she's different. But he goes along with her questions.  
It's weird hearing Clarke's voice, so different, asking questions she should know. 

"Inspiration?" Murphy quizzes the woman in Clarke's body.  
"Clarke in Mount Weather. Clarke in the city of light," it sounds so disjointed hearing her voice speak in the third person, "Clarke staying behind so that you guys could go to space,"  
Murphy has to look at her then, because it feels like Clarke is really the one saying it.  
"She was fairly awesome by the way." Josephine states, and she must be the first person in history to appreciate the things Clarke does- did. With determination to hate rather than feel guilt Murphy tells her,  
"Yeah, unless you got in her way, okay you've softened-" he has to change the subject. 

She twirls her hair a lot, flirting. Murphy puts that down quickly, hitting her hand away.  
She's not Clarke, God she's not Clarke. No one will believe it.  
"Any chance you can pick up a language in an hour?" He asks.  
"I'm sure I can access Clarke's memories for that," Josephine asks, then she leans forward with a smile, twirling her hair again and whispers in his ear, "but I'd rather have you teach me."  
Murphy moves back in his seat with a huff and Josephine laughs before she jumps back up and starts pacing the room once again reciting Clarke's life story.  
Murphy stares at the grain in the wood, avoiding looking at her.  
Clarke's still in there. 

When she lets Bellamy figure it out, though Murphy knew it would only be a matter of time, the two of them seem to have some ineffable psychic bond, Murphy knows he has to go to her father.  
He won't let her kill Bellamy.  
This way they can have peace. Bellamy already mourned Clarke for six years, he'll push through.  
Murphy looks forward to the peace he'll have helped to finally create, even if it means hearing the label snake coming from Clarke's mouth in Josephine's voice.  
He knows from one glance at Bellamy's face when he sees Josephine that he might need an adjustment period, but Clarke is dead, and this time she'll stay this way; she has to. Dear God she has to. 

Emori didn't know Clarke like the others so she seems to put up with Josephine in the same way he does. This way they'll live forever. This was they can love forever. All it takes is Clarke. 

All it takes is his family, and nearly his life apparently.  
Josephine holding him there with a knife to his neck is eerily reminiscent of how he threatened Clarke all those years ago. When he killed a kid, only because Clarke pushed him into that situation. Because her best friend was murdered after you threatened to kill him, with your knife. A niggling part of his brain tells him, sounding suspiciously like Josephine.  
His family is against him, like a knife to his neck.  
Emori is helping them, like a blade plunging in. So much for forever.  
When Bellamy calls him a traitor, Murphy finds himself spilling secrets that will help their cause, a part of him hoping Josephine will just get it over and done with. Can he live forever with that on his mind? 

Another genocide. More haunted hallways. The cold eyes of the Wanheda locking with his as she hugs her child.  
Commander of Death, more cockroach than he could ever be. God, her eyes. They're not like the psycho who had occupied her thoughts before, one with crows feet creases from pushing people's buttons. They're tinged with love and set with fear, rimmed with tears and sizing him up like prey.  
They're Clarke's eyes.  
He wants death more than he ever wanted immortality in this moment. The weight of what he's done is gravity so strong he can hardly stand, feels his heart sink and strain to beat. She could kill him on the spot and he would thank her.  
Instead she shakes her head and smiles one of those sad Clarke smiles that remind him of his mother on the Ark, reassuring him that it's not your fault John.  
"You're forgiven."  
He closes his eyes as she walks away, silent tears falling.  
No, God no, he's not.


End file.
